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Original poster

Have you have voted every single vote you been eligible for

170 replies

Beon · 03/05/2025 18:11

Have voted all but two votes:
. 2005 GE as moved address about 20 miles away 3-4 weeks before the poll date
. 2019 EU. What was the bloody point in voting for candidates to sit there for 7 months?

OP posts:
Arlanymor · 04/05/2025 07:56

Humpycamel · 04/05/2025 07:33

Yes. As a woman I feel I should after what other women went through to get me that right.

Absolutely the same for me.

Natsku · 04/05/2025 08:41

All the people that missed voting because they couldn't get to the polling station in time - this is why I much prefer the Finnish system. Voting day is always on a Sunday so less people working anyway but they also have several days of advance voting so there's a lot more opportunities to vote.

Bestfadeplans · 04/05/2025 10:17

PermanentTemporary · 04/05/2025 06:45

@bestfadeplans that's really interesting. I was brought up to believe voting was an obligation - that it was one of the greatest and most important things I could do. But I come from a privileged and mainstream part of the culture. Would you say some more about groups for whom it is wrong? It's not something I've come across.

Mainly because we don't have proportional representation, which i still don't agree with. The first time I voted was for brexit, because each vote did count.

C8H10N4O2 · 04/05/2025 11:12

Bestfadeplans · 04/05/2025 10:17

Mainly because we don't have proportional representation, which i still don't agree with. The first time I voted was for brexit, because each vote did count.

Show quote history

Did you vote in the referendum on proportional representation?

Bestfadeplans · 04/05/2025 11:15

C8H10N4O2 · 04/05/2025 11:12

Did you vote in the referendum on proportional representation?

Show quote history

Are you referring to the alternative vote referendum in 2011?

EBearhug · 04/05/2025 11:32

Satisfiedkitty · 03/05/2025 18:23

Yes, I'm 53 years old and I've voted in every single election since I turned 18.

Same here. People have died for my right to vote. Even if I thought there was no one worth voting for, I'd go to spoil my ballot paper. I almost never vote for the winning candidate, though, so I have wondered whether I should vote for the one I don't want to win... (I haven't, though.)

EBearhug · 04/05/2025 11:47

Natsku · 04/05/2025 08:41

All the people that missed voting because they couldn't get to the polling station in time - this is why I much prefer the Finnish system. Voting day is always on a Sunday so less people working anyway but they also have several days of advance voting so there's a lot more opportunities to vote.

Aren't they Thursdays here because that was the day before payday, and men would be sober enough to vote?

Treaclewell · 04/05/2025 12:33

I mised the first one since I was 21 this Thursday, and it wouldn't have made any difference. Reform, no, Conservative- having possible alliance with Reform, no. Lib Dems and Greens, no on trans issues, and Labour never get in here anyway. And I'm now in a completely Reform county.
My new councillor is a woman. But not the usual sort of woman in local politics who looks as though she is concerned with things. She looks like somebody's trophy wife, blonde set hair, wide smile, definitely womaning properly, stereotypical. I must stop jumping to conclusions about her engagement with thinking. She is concerned with potholes. Not with the big local issue, the loss of agricultural land and woodland for a solar farm.
Would my vote have made a difference? No. Reform has far more than one vote. And they didn't do any campaigning here.

Natsku · 04/05/2025 13:37

EBearhug · 04/05/2025 11:47

Aren't they Thursdays here because that was the day before payday, and men would be sober enough to vote?

Show quote history

Interesting, that would make sense. But not relevant now so would be a good idea to change so less people miss out on the chance to vote.

imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 04/05/2025 13:51

Beon · 04/05/2025 06:13

The voting cards are hand delivered, guessing from the same people who are at the polling stations and help with the counting. They could hand deliver the voting packs. The average % of postal voters is 18%.

It does say that if you don’t receive your voting pack by a certain date, to contact council.

You can hand over your vote to any polling station that covers the ward or constituency on polling day

Show quote history

They told me to contact them by a certain day if my photo ID didn't turn up too. Promised me it was on the way. It wasn't.

CarpetKnees · 04/05/2025 17:48

No. I didn't vote for years. I was brought up to believe it was wrong.

I still don't understand why anyone could think that voting is "wrong" @Bestfadeplans . Wrong in what way ?

I 100% agree that proportional representation should replace the 'first past the post' system when electing the National Government, but that is the system we have at the moment, so we have to work with what we have for now.

ThisIsMeTryingNow · 04/05/2025 18:10

Almost.

I missed the 2011 local elections as I was living overseas temporarily. I could have appointed a proxy, but as it was a local election I didn’t bother.

Have never missed any other vote of any kind, ever.

AnneElliott · 04/05/2025 18:34

mum2jakie · 04/05/2025 07:44

I have voted in every single General Election.

Never voted in the Police Commissioners as I don't agree with this being chosen by the electorate. Should be interviewed and appointed as other senior posts are.

Never used to vote in European elections and rarely vote in local elections. I did vote in the Locals this week to try and Keep Reform out but we've ended up a Reform council anyway!

Are you aware that PCCs don’t actually run the police force? They set the budget and strategic priorities just like the predecessor police authorities which were comprised of local councillors and some appointed independent members. The force is run by a Chief Constable who is operationally independent from the PCC in the same was he/she was from the police authority.

theonlyonestillawake · 04/05/2025 18:37

Yep

I spoiled my ballot once though

I voted in the Brexit referendum on my way home from hospital after the birth of my DS

halloween41 · 04/05/2025 19:20

Yes. I couldn’t not after what women went through to make sure that I could.

TheChosenTwo · 04/05/2025 19:23

All but the police crime commissioner one’s - never really known enough about it. Which is totally my responsibility to find out but I just never did.
Taking my dds to vote in their first ever general election was a great feeling last year, felt very grateful to the suffragettes.

FutureMandosWife · 04/05/2025 20:02

Missed 1 as my child decided to come into the world 1 week earlier than he should have.

L0UISA · 04/05/2025 20:05

RoseWineandCake · 03/05/2025 22:19

Yes, I never forget that women died to get us the vote. I have voted everytime and always will if I can.

This. I always vote and I took my kids with me from when they were school age, to show them how it works, explain the ballot paper, let them fold it up and put in the box etc.

user1497787065 · 04/05/2025 22:26

I have voted in every single election since 1983 when I turned 18.

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